LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Colbeyshae Emery and Derek James started this past academic year with success at the ITA West Regional Championship and now they are ending the year with more ITA accomplishments.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its end-of-the-year regional award winners on Tuesday, including Colbeyshae Emery as the Women's Tennis West Region Rookie of the Year and Derek James as the Men's Tennis West Region Most Improved Senior.

These awards also qualify Emery and James for national ITA awards in their respective categories. The ITA will announce the national winners on May 26 at 8 am during a virtual ceremony held on the association's Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube pages. 

Both Emery and James won multiple matches at ITA Regionals last October and finished the year as one of the top-ranked players in the West Region. James advanced to the ITA's third round in both singles and doubles and finished the 2020 spring season as the No. 17 ranked single player in the region after going 7-0 from February 4 to March 2.

He posted singles and doubles victories on the same day five times and controlled the No. 3 singles position all year for Biola to earn his Most Improved Senior honors. 

Emery's quarterfinal appearance at last year's ITA Regional proved to just be the start of a great year that also resulted in ITA All-American honors. The freshman finished the year in the West's top-10 rankings for singles and doubles after earning multiple victories over regionally ranked opponents. She also recorded 12 singles and six doubles victories overall during her first collegiate spring season. 

Emery and James are the first two year-end regional award winners of the NCAA-Era for Biola's tennis programs. They will find out if they will also become the first to earn national year-end honors this coming Tuesday.